Chief Executive Officer Simon joined The PPRO Group as CEO in March 2015 following a decade with Sage Group PLC, over 7 years of which he held the CEO position at Sage Pay. Simon led the company through dramatic growth to become the UK’s leading payment gateway for SMEs. He also led the creation of Sage One, the leading online accounting and payroll application.

Simon has an MBA from Georgetown University and has extensive experience in consulting and business, and in his early career founded a marketing software start-up company as well as holding senior strategy and brand consulting roles both in the USA where he lived for six years, and in the UK.

Ralf Ohlhausen, MSc in Mathematics and Master of Telecommunications Business, has over 25 years’ experience in e‑commerce, financial services, mobile telecoms and IT. Before joining PPRO Group, he was President Europe at SafetyPay. Other management positions on his international career path took him to Digicel, O2, British Telecom and Mannesmann-Kienzle.

At PPRO, Ralf is responsible for expanding the company’s portfolio and global reach, as well as developing new business areas and partnerships.

Since the end of 2016 Ralf Ohlhausen is a member of the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) of the European Central Bank (ECB) representing the interests of the Electronic Money Association (EMA).

Before joining PPRO Group as Chief Sales Officer for Payment Services in 2016, Ronnie held senior strategic positions at large financial corporations, such as American Express and Paysafe (previously Skrill). As SVP Sales at Skrill, Ronnie implemented a complete restructuring of the company’s sales strategy and operations to deliver considerable and sustained growth, culminating in a year-on-year growth trajectory of 23 per cent. This ultimately led to the company’s €1.1bn sale to Optimal Payments in 2015.

With his proven track record and experience in the fast-moving payments industry, Ronnie works to attract and recruit new Customers into the business. All while managing, providing support and delivering growth for existing partners and customers. As one of the fastest growing FinTech businesses in Europe, exceeding customer expectations remain a key component to PPRO Group’s ambitious growth plans.

Fernanda Alonso-Gautrais joined PPRO Group as HR director in March 2017, following previous HR director roles at organisations such as VoyagePrive, where in 2015 she received the Victoires du Capital Humain award for ‘HR Director of the year’. At PPRO Group, Fernanda is responsible for developing the company’s global HR strategy to continue its rapid growth and expansion plans. As part of this, she will lead the recruitment of elite global talent to build upon PPRO Group’s position as a leading fintech in Europe.
Fernanda started her career as a lawyer negotiating international commercial and M&A deals in the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors across Europe, Latin America and Africa. Prior to joining PPRO Group, Fernanda launched “Bossa Consulting”, a HR boutique consultancy firm, committed to addressing the needs of fast-growing companies and delivering successful solutions to meet their human resources challenges.
Admitted to the Bar of Sao Paulo, Fernanda is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Sao Paulo, Sciences Po Paris, Université Paris I – Pantheon Sorbonne and the Executive Master of HEC Paris. Fernanda has also co-authored a book “HR and Growth – How to manage and develop human capital in growing companies”.

Andrew Edem started his career as a Software Engineer in the computer networking and telephony industries where he swiftly advanced as a leader, managing project teams in international and startup environments. After moving into the FinTech space and leading the software and infrastructure teams for a prepaid card issuer, he joined PPRO in 2011 to build the technology platform for VIABUY. His diverse skills set was well suited: not only did he head the design and architecture of PPRO’s prepaid card issuing platform, he was also engaged in regulatory projects, supplier relationships and Mastercard membership, all while driving projects from inception to go-to-market phases.

In 2015, he was promoted to lead the Software Engineering team, where he grew the department  5-fold and took responsibility for the R&D part of the business.

Andrew holds a BSc from The Open University (UK).

Ian joined PPRO in December 2015 as Director of Compliance & Money Laundering Reporting Officer. He has over 20 years’ experience in Compliance including e-commerce, new payment technologies and online payments.   More recently, he worked for over six years as Vice President of Compliance and MLRO at Optimal Payments, a global provider of online and mobile payment processing services to thousands of merchants and millions of consumers.

Ian will take the lead in setting the compliance strategy and ensuring PPRO’s business remains compliant with key legal and regulatory frameworks as an FCA-authorised institution.

Ian has previously held senior positions at Liverpool Victoria, St James’ Place and BNP Paribas and was a teacher (in Australia) of History and Politics. Ian holds a BA from the University of Western Australia and is married with three children.

Stefan Merz has joined PPRO in November 2018 as Chief Operating Officer (COO). In the newly created role he is responsible for PPRO’s strategic operational and organisational expansion and will also direct the implementation of the corporate strategy. He is working closely with PPRO Group’s CEO Simon Black and the company’s international offices.

Before joining PPRO he has been working for Siemens and HP Enterprises in the USA and gained wide-ranging experience in implementing business transformations, both in the USA and internationally. Until recently, he served as Chief Strategy Officer for Diebold Nixdorf, where he managed significant acquisitions and divestitures.